Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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277. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated net cost to the Exchequer of funding fee paying schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49381/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Gross expenditure on the order of €104 million was incurred by my Department on salaries for teachers and special needs assistants (including employer’s PRSI) in fee-charging schools in the 2020/2021 school year. Capital supports (building related and ICT grants) are also available to such schools. In recent years, an annual average of approx. €1m has been paid to such schools in capital supports.

If the parents of children in the fee-charging sector chose to send their children to the non-fee-charging sector, the State would have to fund those school places. In this respect, the figures quoted relate to the gross cost of fee-charging schools and not the net financial position. Since it is not possible to predict these patterns of behaviour it is not possible to calculate the net financial position.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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278. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the annual capital funding provided to fee-paying schools in the past five years in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49382/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The total amount of capital funding (primarily building related and ICT grants) paid by my Department to fee-charging schools from 2017 to date is set out in the attached table.